Ha-Kayitz Shel Aviya

Award-winning writer-actress Gila Almagor recalls some of the trauma she experienced as a child while living in a small Israeli settlement just after World War II. In a bold, emotional performance Almagor herself portrays her own mother, a Nazi death camp survivor, whose harsh and overprotective affection toward her ten-year old daughter betrayed the symptoms of an inevitable nervous breakdown. It may sound like just another coming-of age story, but the film is more an intense and cathartic drama about divided families and about the lingering after-effects of the Holocaust, devastating in its implications and filled with moments of insight, compassion, and tragedy. Equally impressive is the debut performance by ten-year old Kaipo Cohen in the title role, and director Eli Cohen himself co-stars as the European immigrant young Aviya suspects (wrongly) of being her long-lost father.